August 23, 2003

Point oh eight three years old.

Well here we are: four weeks in. It seems like just four weeks ago we didn't even know what little Luke was going to look like. Now we know, of course. We've also learned a few other things in the last 28 days:

Luke's tricks are few and far between at this point. He's still just warming up for the big show-off, guess-what-I-can-do explosion, I think. Right now, he's really good at doing this full-body, extended arms and legs stretching thing when he's awoken and picked up. We've tried to capture it on film, but haven't really got a good shot yet. Imagine a person trying to simultaneously be as long and extended as possible while remaining completely unbendable. You can basically hold him up in the small of his back and he will extend horizontally into the air with no other support. His other trick is pretty nice, too: gas-passing smiles. Most of the gas expelled from his body is preceded by a bunch of squirmy, wiggly, grimmace-accompanied body contortion. But once he reaches the end of the line? Hooboy. That last one brings the biggest, best smile to his face. Great [familiar] stuff.

We're getting closer and closer to the on purpose smile too. He's definitely gained the ability in the last week or so to really focus on our face and even follow us around if we move out of his line of sight. So that's cool. I think the big smile on cue is just around the corner. Can't wait for that.

What else? Not much in the tricks department. Perhaps you might settle for some more pictures? Look at these, and we'll work on the fancy maneuvers in the meantime.

August 13, 2003

Baby's first groan-at-daddy joke!

Q: When giving Baby Teague a bath, what is the ideal water temperature?A: Lukewarm.

The weird thing is that this "joke" came up naturally during the course of Luke's bath last night. Apparently, until the last remains of the umbilical cord fall off, you aren't allowed to give your baby a bath in which they are submerged in water. So last night Jeanine and I were tag-team sponge-bathing him -- each with our own sink and washrags -- when Jeanine asked me how hot the water was that I was using on him. I answered "lukewarm" and we both just kind of stared for a second or two until it registered.

August 9, 2003

Happy Due Date!

Today used to be my estimated due date, but instead I sit here reflecting on my beautiful 2 week old little boy. It's hard to imagine that he might not have been born until today, or even later. It seems like so much time has passed in just the two weeks that he's come into our lives. I can't imagine not having him yet and missing out on the two weeks of knowing him. A day is like a thousand years...:)

It's hard to say exactly how our lives have changed. Life is definitely different right now, but I still feel like we're in transition until we figure out how things are really going to work.

One thing we do know: our family and friends are incredible. People have been so thoughtful, kind, and generous. It's been absolutely overwhelming to us. The outpouring of love and excitement at Luke's arrival has meant so much to us, and I just want to thank all of you (if you're reading this, I'm talking about you) for being a part of our life as a new family.

August 7, 2003

The next batch.

I'm having a hard time figuring out how to transition from a relatively non-image-focused site with a lot of stories and text to the much easier to manage pictures-of-babies thing. There's a twinge of guilt as I post this entry: I have nothing to wrap the images in. No real story. No narrative. I guess I attempted to build a narrative into the picture series, but even that feels slight.

Oh well. I'm guessing that one day I'll have the energy to sit down and unfurl some of the fun little birthing details, but right now I just want to put up some more pictures. Feel free to make picture requests in the comments, by the way. I'm trying to stick up a diverse set of images, but I have no idea what anyone really wants to see. I've been trying and trying to catch one of Luke's unintentional (? so far it seems that way) smiles, so save any requests for that one -- I'm working on it!

[bonus image: My mom dug up a picture of me in 1977-era scrubs from Tiffany's arrival. Contrast and compare!]

August 3, 2003

Point and shoot.

First of all, please note the time of day night that this particular entry was posted. Nice, huh? Luke's across the room having his fourth dinner since 7pm -- I'm standing by with the burp cloth, bulbous orifice suction thing, and Pampers Swaddler [5 star diaper, sure, but sparki777 was dead-on when they said that it doesn't adequately "contain up-the-backside poops."].

This set-up gives me the twenty minute window necessary to post the following pictures from Luke's arrival and hospital stay. Still don't have time to do up an entry with lots of detailed textual guts, and I don't know when in the world I will ever have the time for that business. I do know that more pictures are coming though. And I can do pictures.

[up next: Luke gets home and proceeds to eat and sleep more than you -- and photographic documentation of same.]